The Acer Games
by Lyrei
Summary: The Acer Games. Where 20 people of the 5 classes battle to the death. What happens if a small band of hardcore Maplers refuse to play by the rules?Can they overthrow the hackers? Or will they be tempted by the reward? Only one may survive.Char apps up!
1. The Games

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Disclaimer: I do not own Maplestory, Nexon/Wizet/Whoever owns it at the moment does. I also do not own the Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins.

**This is like the Hunger Games (read it for the lulz) but Maplestory style. With a twist. (That I'm not going to tell you.)**

Uh.

**Character applications, anyone? If anyone wants to join (fat chance, but I can hope.) please fill out this application form.  
Example-  
Name: Sylph Arderson  
Class: Hunte  
Level: 87**

**Age: 16  
Gender: Female  
Weapon: Dark Arund  
Skill: Excellent hearing and eyesight.  
Personality: Sylph is a cynical Rangeress who dislikes anything faintly male. Tenacious and intelligent, she is not one that you'd like to hug at first. She speaks sarcasm as a second language. She thinks that she has no chance of making it out of the Acer Games alive, because on top of everything else, she preaches pessimism. **

**  
Description: Sylph isn't drop-dead gorgeous, but nor is she hideous either. She borders on fairly attractive. She has short scruffy brown hair that sticks out in spikes and a fringe. Her skin is cream-coloured typical of the Henesysians, and her eyes are a dark green. She is quite small, around 5"3 with a lithe body. She wears a Dark Patriot, having dubbed the bucket-like Dark Falcon as being 'ugly as sin'. She wears the Dark Pria bowwoman overall, despite calling it 'a friggin' baby jumpsuit'. As for gloves, she chose Dark Eyes, and Dark Wing Boots is her choice of footwear. **

**Picture: **_**ENTIRELY OPTIONAL: **_

_**http: //i258. /albums/ hh277/ inkbloty / sylph . j p g**_

_**Remove spaces.**_

**Reaction to being chosen for the Acer Games: 'I'm gonna die sooner or later. Might as well do it with style.'**

**Just an example. Not sure if I'm going to let a witty ranger dominate the games. .;**

**Of course, I show no favoritism towards any class, having played most of the classes and enjoying them all. And I will edit your level if it's too high (150+) or too low (level 10, lulz) The age ranges from 12-25. Because I don't like to write about killing little kids or old people. ;p  
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War raged.

People died.

Destruction and blood hung heavily in the once pure air of Ellinia. Blood clung to the leaves of the Great Tree. The fairies had long fled to their safe haven- Orbis, and their houses were derelict, with the beautifully carved wooden doors long studded with throwing stars.

It had remained so for fourteen years.

_So unnecessary._

The hackers were tired of the war- it was not _beneficial _to them, nor did it serve their needs. In their eyes, it only demonstrated how stupid the humans were. If their only intelligent option was to go to war, then it said a _lot _about their intelligence.

The hackers appreciated beauty. But how beautiful could a town splashed with red and littered with corpses be? The answer was not at all. To put it simply, they decided to end the war. It _was _amusing for a couple of days, but then it just was tiresome.

And all because the four elders had wanted to see which class was the best.

So tiresome.

* * *

'A competition?' Athena Pierce echoed.

'Yes,' the Hack Lord replied, already tired of the conversation. 'This feud was started with the desire to know which class was superior. A competition would suffice instead of war, would it not?'

The four leaders considered the thought carefully, occasionally eyeing each other with suspicion. They had no idea of the implications of dealing with hackers, because it had never been tried before. It was just not the done thing.

'Suppose we _don't _agree to this grand scheme,' Dances with the Balrog bluntly said. 'Suppose we continue this war.'

Grendel the Wise mentally cursed his luck for his co-leader being a complete idiot. Who knew what those hackers had running through their minds? They were psychopaths, for Scania's sake.

The Hack Lord rested his gaze on the bulky warrior chieftain.

'Why would _you, _of the four want to? My people calculated you have less than 17% chance of winning this war. Half of your army is ready to dissent. You are low on food and resources.' The Hack Lord smirked, then continued in his dangerously silky voice.

'Why would you want to continue this war, _Master of Warriors_?' The title was mocking through the Hack Lord's bloodless lips.

Dances with the Balrog fumed.

'Warriors never quit, so-called _Hack Lord. _Unlike your cheating, disgusting, _forbidden _class, the warriors are legitimate, honourable and worthy.'

Oh, the stupid, _stupid _man. Angered, the Hack Lord stood up.

'If you refuse to comply and end this war, Scania help you.' The Hack Lord hissed. 'We will kill all four of you, halve the population in Victoria and see if anyone still wants to fight.'

Stunned silence ensued.

The Hack Lord hid a smile.

Violence always worked where reasoning didn't.

And he didn't appreciate a loud-mouthed human warrior insulting _his _people.

* * *

On the five thousandth, one hundredth and ninety-seventh day of the Great War, there was silence.

People of all the towns poked their heads out of their mangled doors curiously. No clashing of stars against spears? Nothing being burnt down by fire or frozen by ice? No meso bombs being detonated?

Nothing but the eerie silence.

A moment in history to be celebrated, if you will.

The Great War had ended.

The happiness had followed swiftly, elixir corks firing happily into the air. Smiles graced the dirt-ravaged faces of the civilian folk, and the remnants of the armies slunk back to their home towns.

But the four leaders had played with the Hackers. There was a deal. A deal that no one fully appreciated except the hackers themselves. They weren't going to end the war if they didn't receive some… _payment _in return. Not in mesos- they had too much of that already. Weapons or armour- what was the use?

Entertainment however… was priceless in the Hacker's eyes.

However, what they thought of 'entertainment' differed greatly from the average person's.

And that was what the rest of the Maple World was about to find out.

* * *

'Gather round, gather round.' The tremor in Athena Pierce's voice was evident.

The archers, old and young alike, were worried. They knew the war didn't end _just _because the four had agreed to end it. There was something else- but what? And whatever that was enough to upset their usually stoic Master… was best left to imagination.

Athena's light green eyes dulled as she turned on the gargantuan Maple Television residing beside the portal to Henesys Hunting Ground I.

They were immediately met with an inhumanly beautiful face of who everyone recognized as the famous hacker, Arenare. He was rumoured to be banned after sabotaging numerous Zakum and Horntail teams. All of the weapons and armour dropped had been vacced to him.

Turned out he was never touched by the Godmasters.

'To the inhabitants of Henesys- good morning. We _hope _that you will keep your promises. We do not permit failures.'

He offered the archers a smile.

'Every half-year, there will be a competition- The Acer Games. Let us outline it for you. Each town in Victoria Island will send 4 of it's inhabitants. Two boys, two girls.'

'Lith Harbor will send its' Permanent Beginners.'

The scene switched to the achingly familiar Lith Harbor before it was in its' current state- ruins. It panned to the right and showed hackers in beginner outfits, carrying the signature Frozen Tuna of the Perma Beginners.

'Henesys will send Archers.'

Henesys, the familiar countryside scene before its blackened state. There were hackers shooting Zakum with godly bows, doing insane damage. There were several cries of outrage from the archers before Arenare silenced them with the mention of the next town.

'Ellinia will send Magicians.'

Ellinia in its' glory, blossoming trees and the great oak still intact. Fairies of every rank fluttered to and fro, mischievously pulling at the hair of laughing human magicians. The archers murmured in sadness, even though the magicians were mostly the people that had made their lives miserable through intense kill-stealing.

United through destruction.

How touching.

'Kerning will send their Thieves.'

'Perion will send their Warriors.'

There was a silence as they watched the clip of the barren land of Perion. Very few people actually liked the pompous warriors.

'They will not be chosen by level or skill, but by luck.' Arenare continued. 'Five of our people, myself included, will be sent to the respective towns with all of the names of your people in two boxes- male and female. The leader of your class will draw out two from each of the boxes. They will then be taken away to a disclosed location.'

An illusion of Athena Pierce picking two pieces of paper out of two boxes appeared, and there was a murmur of outrage at the Hackers' cheek.

'At the location, they will meet their appointed mentors.' Five hackers appeared briefly. 'These mentors will train them, think up strategies, and make them presentable. The lives of the tributes are in the hands of their mentors.'

An excerpt of hackers training under the five appeared. They discussed strategies, ate together, trained together. There was no doubt in the archers' mind that it would be radically different.

'You can sponsor the people that you appreciate. Weapons and armour will not be allowed. Food and potions however, will be allowed, at a price. The price will be 1.5 million mesos on the first day, 3 million mesos on the second, 6 million mesos on the third. By each day, the price will double itself.'

Arenare paused and grinned brightly at the archers.

'There will also be sponsors amongst our people.'

'After two weeks of training and rest, the twenty tributes will be released into a disclosed location, without armour or weapons . Within 10 metres, they will find backpacks of food, water, potions and other items. They will also find armour and weapons.'

A grassy plain with twenty metal plates appeared, with equipment and backpacks strewn around. There was a strangely shaped dome in the background. Athena quickly took a mental picture of the place- it could be useful.

The television switched back to Arenare's sinister smiling face.

'Then, there will be a fight to the death.' He recited it in a sing-song voice, happiness noticeable in its raw form.

The master of archers finally lost her composure and sank into the arms of several bewildered archers. A stony-faced bowmaster with a Dragon Shiner bow ordered the archers to get stretchers.

'The tributes will find food, water, potions and other weapons or stars strewn everywhere in the arena.'

There was a 10 second clip of ilbis in tree holes, power elixirs stuck on leaves and a bow hidden behind a cloth covering the bark of a tree.

'The battle will be projected on all MapleTV screens of every town. Everyone is _required _to watch.'

Arenare winked at the archers as if to say 'Oh gosh, isn't this so exciting?'

The bastard.

'If you're the one who wins…' he broke off, shaking his head. 'Nah, I doubt it. Archers are so weak that no one wants to be them.' He grinned brightly at us. 'Do you know that you guys are ranked _way _down with the perma beginners?'

Anger, fear, revulsion.

'Anyway, if you win, we'll help you restore your town. Choose a place, we'll rebuild it. We'll help with agriculture, mesos etc. And we'll help you forge extra-powerful weapons as well.'

A clip of the old Henesys flashed again, and the longing was obvious in all of the archers' eyes.

'We will start in 10 days. May the odds be in your favour!' Arenare finished, and waved a 'goodbye' at the archers.

The screen turned black.

The archers looked at each other with wide, fearful eyes.

This was the punishment- their execution.

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So.. what'd you think? Leave char apps (if there are any. ._.) in a PM/review.

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	2. The alliance

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Okay. Second chapter. I can do this.

**A/N: All references to the game Maplestory belongs to Nexon, or the company that currently holds all rights/owns it. I claim no rights over the characters or whatever. **

**Applications available: **

Permabeginners: 4.  
[NPC] Beginner mentor: 1

**Archers: 0, sorry.  
****[NPC]Archer mentor (teacher person that helps them survive): 1  
**

**Magicians: 2  
**

**Warriors: 1  
****[NPC] Warrior mentor: 1**

**Thieves: 3  
[NPC] Thief mentor: 1**

**[NPC] Organizer: 1  
[NPC] Hack master: 1**

**Name: Sylph Arderson  
Class: Ranger  
Level: 87  
Age: 16  
Gender: Female  
Weapon: Dark Arund  
Skill: Excellent hearing and eyesight.  
Personality: Sylph is a cynical Rangeress who dislikes anything faintly male. Tenacious and intelligent, she is not one that you'd like to hug at first. She speaks sarcasm as a second language. She thinks that she has no chance of making it out of the Acer Games alive, because on top of everything else, she preaches pessimism. ****  
****Description: Sylph isn't drop-dead gorgeous, but nor is she hideous either. She borders on fairly attractive. She has short scruffy brown hair that sticks out in spikes and a fringe. Her skin is cream-coloured typical of the Henesysians, and her eyes are a dark green. She is quite small, around 5"3 with a lithe body. She wears a Dark Patriot, having dubbed the bucket-like Dark Falcon as being 'ugly as sin'. She wears the Dark Pria bowwoman overall, despite calling it 'a friggin' baby jumpsuit'. As for gloves, she chose Dark Eyes, and Dark Wing Boots is her choice of footwear. She also adores children- as in anyone two years younger than her or younger.**

**I might remove some of the [NPC] positions and just make them up myself. But I have to remind you: if, by some miracle, you want to join, you can apply for 2 positions. If you've applied already, then you can still apply for [NPC] positions. But you need to make it soon, because I can't keep saying: The identity of the other competitors were a secret or something. **

**Pronunciation**

**Caele – Ka-yi-lay. **

**Caelenian- Ka-yi-layn-nian.**

**As usual, thank you for reading and please offer your thoughts on how to improve this dumb excuse for a fic.**

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_6 years ago._

_Ellinian forest._

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Nic touches the ground, her exquisite Petal Staff lying forgotten a few metres away. What use was it now when she had no more patients to heal?

'_Nic, I'm sorry... Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein were like parents to you. But a recent hacker raid on Lith Harbor took them. Nic? Nic? Where are you going? Hey-'_

Her weak fists pound the ground, reminding her once again of the little physical power she had. Ignoring the fact, she pummels the soft soil of the Ellinian forest over and over again.

'Stupid… Hackers!' Punch, pummel. 'Who the hell do they-' Grunt. '-think they are?!'

Blood runs freely from her knuckles, but she ignores it. She could always heal herself later. Wasn't that was clerics did? Heal, heal, _heal? _What if there was nothing left to heal? What if there was nothing left for her mana to mend?

Unknown to her, a newly turned Bandit silently moves through the leaves, his stealthy tread easily inspiring envy from predators and enemies alike. A dark cap hangs down over his eyes but he ignores the annoyance for now.

He only has eyes for a certain cleric who was currently trying to destroy the whole of Ellinia with her puny little fists. He steps out of the shelters of the forest.

'Hey Nic,' he whispers softly. The cleric girl ignores him. Frowning, he steps forward and bends down, catching hold of her wrists. Her scared hazel eyes look up at him; frail; innocent.

'No point harming yourself, yeah?' He hugs her awkwardly, not really used to the warmth of the embrace. He tries to detach himself without success, instead simply hoping that the pointy projectiles attached to his belt won't hurt her.

'No point hurting yourself when there are other dudes to heal, yeah?'

Nic shook her head and Jakiro sighs.

'Those guys you were healing before wouldn't want you to stop helping other guys because of them, kay?'

A nod.

'So you're going to pick up that dangerous, pointy stick you have there,' Jakiro gestures towards the Petal Staff. 'And get out there and show those guys what you're made of.'

Nic nods, numbly stumbling across the long blades of grass towards her weapon. Jakiro watches her go, hoping that she would be okay. He shakes his head in annoyance.

_Of course Nic will be okay. She's strong, yeah?_

He nods to himself again, lightly melting into the last rays of falling light.

_Yeah, she's strong. _

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_Hidden street, present time._

**Sylph Arderson.**

* * *

This night, the whole of Victoria Island would mourn. They'd mourn for those who'd die, like me, and hoped for their own chosen class to win and rebuild their city. Henesys _needed _to be rebuilt. The main source of food comes from Henesys, but the thing that irked me was that the archers had a low chance of surviving without bow and arrows. I mean, the warriors could pretty much bludgeon anyone to death with sticks, but what about us bowpeople?

Let me just sum up the general mood:

_We're all going to freaking die. _

But why me, though? Why not any other loser in Henesys? I'm not well-liked, but I had a freaking _future _in front of me that did not involve smoking the illegal leaves that were found in Korean Folk Town. Artemisia.

Artemisia made you stronger, it was true. But people went on a freaking _high _after it. They were addicted for life. Their quest for more of the disgusting plant consumed them. Sometimes literally. Artemisia was arsenic.

Anyway, there was no time for goodbyes. I was swept into a minicab with the rest of the unfortunate souls. All I remember doing in it was staring at the archers that I would have to fight. The Hackers were driving at the front, but there was a mini-wall dividing us from them.

'We're going to kill each other.'

I grinned at the speaker, but it faltered as I realized he was 12 years old. Not even a teen yet. That was _wrong. _And it hit me, finally, with the equivalent force of a ten-ton hammer, that there was a chance that he would die, the rest of us going with him.

'We are. But maybe not by each other's hands,' I replied shortly. I didn't want this particular path of conversation to be talked down through. 'My money's gonna be on the warriors.'

The rest murmured their agreement, and I felt glad. At least they weren't optimistic idiots who yelled at me that _of course we were going to win. _I smiled at them, realizing that I might as well get to know them once before we, for lack of a better word, get butchered.

'So. I'm Sylph. Ranger and proud. I really wish none of us were doing this, but if this is what it takes to end the war, I'm glad.'

'Better us than 300 people dying a day, yeah?' the first kid bit his lip. 'Well, I'm Renas Garten. Crossbowman. Level 57. I've always wanted to be a Sniper…' he shook his head. 'Never mind about that. I'm worried about my sister- she's 6. She doesn't know where the hell I've gone, and she's probably scared to death she's gonna follow me. '

My eyes widened. To have no family was bad. To have a picture-perfect family that was going to be torn apart… was unforgivable. But there was nothing anyone could do anymore. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.

'If I'm going to die, I'm not gonna die a wimp. I want sis to know that big bro died when he was being a hero.' He smiled, his mind already a thousand miles away. I nodded at the person sitting next to him.

'Ferin. I'm 19. No family in the background, so no sob story for me. I've just hit Level 118. So close to being a Bowmaster. It was my only dream, y'know.' He smiled ruefully. 'To be one of the elite and teach little kids at the AA.'

The AA was the Archer's Academy. People would send their aspiring archer kids to become hardened archer kids. Upperclass; middleclass; civilians. They all came to the AA. It had been reopened the minute we were sure no one was going to set the town on fire.

Ferin had a high chance of surviving this. He was freaking _Level 118, _for the love of Scania. He was _experienced. _And me? I'd probably die in the first couple of minutes with a note of confusion on my face. I looked at the last person- a girl candidate like I was. She caught my gaze.

'I'm not going to talk to you,' she said primly, making me raise an eyebrow in disbelief. We were all going to _die, _and she was snubbing us. 'If I get too close to you or tell you too much, Daddy said I wasn't going to win.'

Let me spell it out for you: _Ouch. _This kid knew more about survival than any of us combined. She just lacked moral ethics.

* * *

**Priest Nic.**

* * *

How in the name of priests did they manage to build a city?! 'They' being the hackers, duh. They built a stupid city under the watchful gaze of the Victoria Four. That has got to be impossible.

Or not.

So far, it's been okay I guess. At least they don't force me to do healing duties here. Wait a second… Healing duties are definitely _way _better than the situation than I was in now. At least I'm not forced to become a murderer. Or so I think.

The mansion is, ugh, _too big. _

As in, creepy. They tell us that we're 'expected' for dinner at 19:00. And to dress appropriately. Well they can take their dinner and stuff it straight down their-

'Hello?'

My eyebrows are automatically raised in surprise.

'Umm, yeah?' I reply.

'Ah, that is good. You are here. Please open the door.'

My eye twitches with irritation. I've been stuffed into a minicab for 3 hours, told I was gonna die, got punched by a fellow puny mage… The list goes on. I am _entitled _to be grumpy.

'Open it yourself.'

'I will.'

There isn't a resounding crash, and a great thunderbolt doesn't come and strike the door down or anything. In fact, it's pretty _anti-_dramatic. Clicking sound, door swings open, in comes a hacker guy.

Wait.

_Hacker guy? _

'Who are you.' I growl. I'm _tired. _Way too tired to be nice to whoever the hell this person is. I can't even think straight, let alone be polite to some random hacker.

'I am Athame. Your mentor while you are in the Acer Games.'

Mentor? What mentor? You're going to send us to our deaths doing _more _lessons? Screw you. Screw everything.

'I have a death sentence pronounced on me,' I said aloud, burying my face in pillows. 'I don't need education as well.'

I felt the mentor sit down on the side of my bed and chuckle. Why was he _laughing _at me? I gritted my teeth.

'You don't need lessons on how to _survive?_'

Survive? How the hell can I survive? I can't do anything in an arena without a wand. What am I supposed to do? Snap off a stick and channel magic through it? Hey… Maybe that isn't such a bad ide-

'You are not going to die.'

He said it with such conviction that I sat up and blinked at the light. Grimacing as I was half-blinded, I turned to his general direction.

'You have 5 minutes. Start talking.'

* * *

Dinner was a dismal affair. The general atmosphere was of people thinking that this was their last meal. It was, in a way. But there were still a week left for them to prepare.

A week. The last chance to live for 19 of them.

It's sad, isn't it? Usually when you are told that you have a week or so to live, you go out doing the things you've always wanted to do. But all of them are trapped here. This place would be their tombs.

It brings a tear to my eye.

_Not really. _

Oh, look.

The priestess Nic is meeting the chief bandit Jakiro.

Things are bound to get interesting. Or maybe even faintly amusing.

* * *

**Priest Nic.**

* * *

'Jak?'

I whisper the name with almost reverence. I haven't spoken to him for about 2 years, burying myself in work and training. And we meet _here _of all places.

Dear Grendel, the _irony. _

His dark eyes widen when he hears my voice. Then he looks away again. Aww crap. Maybe he took my absence a little too hard? I couldn't really blame him. I would've hunted him down if he had tried to ignore me.

'You're acquainted already? That's great! Now let's move on,' I tore my eyes away from Jak and focused on the new speaker. His hair was a strange shade of turquoise blue and he had the same coloured eyes to match. And dear Grendel, he was _beautiful. _

And that's all I'm going to say about him on the matter.

'As you all know, you're pioneers in the Acer Games. No one knows what's going to happen when we let you all out there. No one has the _complete _picture, not even myself, as the organizer.' His beady eyes stared intently at each of us as he spoke. 'You have a great incentive, my young competitors. We have the manpower to rebuild your town at the flick of the wrist,' he smiled to himself secretively. 'And we _will. _Only for the winning class will we do so. Only _one _part of the town, though. Which means your successors would have to be successful also.'

A warrior stood up- he was just a kid.

'Mr. Organizer guy, I have 3 words for you- Bring. It. _On._'

I rolled my eyes. Amateur heroics were cute in movies, but in real life? Come _on._

'I distinctly remember your name being Xemira Feonix. Am I correct?' the organizer didn't look like he was impressed. Quite the opposite, I guessed.

'Yep, it is.'

'Suicidal bravery doesn't win any favours with death,' the organizer told the kid. He turned back to the rest of us. 'There are quite a few kinks to be sorted out with the system, but…'

I droned him out, instead thinking happier thoughts of Ellinia, ice cream and…

Jak.

* * *

**Sylph Arderson.**

* * *

Co-training was a _pain _in the bow.

It was like a show-off session once a day, for 45 minutes. Warriors threw weights around. Hermits chucked pointy objects, going into hysterics every time it struck a target. Chief bandits learned the fine art of blowing things up. Mages learnt how to deal with using magic without a pretty piece of wood. Archers… well. We just shot arrows, hoping to _Scania _that we'd get our hands on a bow. Permabeginners…?

They just sat around, resigned to dying first.

It was kinda sad, really.

Three of the warriors caught my eye.

Two were twins. I barely remembered anything about them. I just knew they were Yasa and Yascal Rewer. And they were _strong. _

Have you _seen _their dual moves against the instructor? It's just plain scary and cool. It's like they have twin telepathy or something. But they have a strong chance of winning.

Last night at dinner, the organizer told us we were allowed allies.

They would join _me. _I'm sure of it. My leadership skills kick _ass. _

And the third warrior. He was just a kid, with pretty blue eyes and brown hair. He just sat with the permabeginners as well, not throwing weights around or swinging nasty swords. He just… sat there. Uncharacteristic for a warrior.

'Hey. What's up?'

I walked over to him and he barely looked up. I saw the mistrust written all over his face.

'S'okay, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything,' I chortled harshly. 'I don't think I _can, _what with my sucky archertastic combat skills.'

He smiled at the last description of my lack of talent and my heart melted. Kids… They can bring me down with a mischievous grin. Always could.

'I don't want to fight.'

I made a face at him.

'Psh, no one wants to fight here. Except the resident psychos over there,' I nodded towards several mages, a warrior and thieves. He groaned. 'It's called survival, kid.'

He closed his almond-shaped eyes.

'I don't want to kill innocents, y'know? It's just not…' He re-opened his eyes and gazed blankly at some of the permabeginners. They were all just little kids! 12 years old, 13 maybe.

'I don't think I can live with myself if I do it.'

I nodded sympathetically, but left him to his own thoughts. If the chance arose again, I'd talk to him. Right now, I headed over to the twin warriors.

'Yascal. Yasa. Rooftop at 8, after dinner.'

They both stared at me, at the same time. A calculating look was in their eyes, and I waited, waited, waited. Almost imperceptible nods.

I smiled. They wouldn't need much convincing…

* * *

**Rooftop. **

* * *

The night sky of the Hacker's city was beautiful. The hackers themselves gazed at it, marveling at the wonders of the Caelenian skies. They had named it after their city- Caele. But the rangeress and the two warriors who had the most spectacular view behind them ignored it.

Sylph Arderson stood at a respectable distance from Yasa and Yascal Rewer. The twins looked eerie in moonlight- identical raven locks and dark blue eyes glinting strangely. They appreciated her respect of their space.

'Look, we might die next week.' Was the eloquent beginning of Sylph's speech. The twins smiled at the bluntness. They admired her tone- straight; to the point.

'I don't want to die,' she continued simply. She didn't sound scared- just matter-of-fact. 'I'm proposing an alliance.'

The twins exchanged a look. If the ranger defected, they could overpower her in an instant. In the mean time, they lost a ranged opponent and gained an ally that could attack from long-range while they attacked short-range. While she had the protection of the warriors, who were most likely to survive the Games.

Win-win-win situation.

In a few seconds of meaningful but subtle looks, they agreed.

'We accept your offer.'

A wide smile crossed Sylph's face.

_Watch out noobs, Sylph is going to __**win. **_

* * *

As usual, sign ups are first come first serve. (If anyone actually does, I'm surprised. Lawl.) You get bigger parts when you join earlier, because the imagined storyline in my mind says so.

* * *


	3. The maze

Disclaimer: Maplestory does not belong to me. It belongs to Wizet/Nexon/Whatever company is in possession of it at the moment.

_

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_

_6 years ago.f_

Xemira Feonix was eight.

But he was recently ordained as a _Fighter. _This alone was a great example of his strength. But the neighbourhood Henesysians grumbled and he felt that his world was _breaking, breaking, breaking_.

'What in Sleepywood were his parents thinking? Like that, he'll grow up a killer alright.'

Xemira Feonix had a few close friends that stuck by him even when the rumours spread that he was a hacker. Some of them didn't, and he felt that his world was _breaking, breaking, breaking. _

'Umm, Xem?'

Xemira looked up at his best friend, Saella. The young archer girl was flanked by two burly warriors much older than he was. They looked menacing, with hefty spears and feral grins. He offered them a friendly smile, when in reality he was concentrating on the wild boars that threatened to gore him to death.

'Yeah, Sae?' Slash blast, power strike, drink a white potion. Repeat.

'I don't think I can be your friend anymore.' Saella blurted out, mortified. Xemira's eyes widened as he stopped in mid-swing, allowing a boar to ram straight into him. He winced in pain, but looked straight at Saella as he got up again.

'Why not?' The warrior tried to keep a level tone, but his world was _breaking, breaking, breaking. _

'Well, um. Jaymes said so! I'm sorry…' Saella quickly ran straight for the portal, the two warriors following more leisurely after her.

Xemira scowled as he continued killing boars. Jaymes Milligan was Saella's brother- 16, and already a ranger. To hear Saella speak, Jaymes controlled her entire life. And Xemira _hated _him.

But his world couldn't break anymore.

He smiled.

Three days later, he was training again. But this time at the land of Fire Boars. What had happened during these three days that had caused him to break off from his strict regime?

Xemira smiled to himself, but it was dangerous; malicious.

What had torn him from his precious training?

Why, Jaymes' funeral of course. Didn't you hear? He was slain horribly in the dead of night by some unspeakable coward.

Perhaps someone would have wondered how Xemira had gotten from level 30 to 42 in the course of a night. Maybe killing a level 78 _monster, _perhaps?

* * *

**Rooftop, Tuesday**

Sylph Arderson glared at the pretty-boy standing in front of her.

'You're _weak. _Weakness gets people _killed. _In the games, all that's gonna matter is maturity, skills, and strength. You got the strength, you got the skills, but you're about as mature as a piece of cheese,' she hissed, not sparing the youngster a single moment to answer back. 'And I'm not talking 'bout mature cheddar. That's what's gonna get you killed in the end.'

Xemira Feonix tried not to cry. He'd never been yelled at before, especially not by steel-tongued rangers who specialized in screaming sense into people. He clenched his fists instead.

'I don't care. I don't want to kill innocent people.' He replied, his voice shaky. The rangeress made a noise between a snort and a cry of exasperation. She stepped forward towards the young crusader and put a hand on either side of his armour-clad shoulders.

'Listen, kid. There are at least 10 people out there who don't give a flying orange mushroom about the rest of us. All they want is for you to get out of this place _alive, _even if it involves corrupting your oh-so-precious innocence,' Sylph sighed- she didn't want this kid to die. Kids should have a happy life, not die at the hands of random psychopaths. 'So get over yourself.'

Xemira shook his head furiously. Sylph made a face at her allies, Yascal and Yasa. They remained silent, but their faces echoed their disapproval. Nope, this kid had to get over his nobility and fight to kill.

_Now. _

Sylph gripped the kid's shoulders firmly and shoved him to the wall. She met his terrified gaze and grimaced. Was this what she was good at? Terrorizing little kids so that they'd survive?

'Kid.' She racked her brain for his name. '_Xemira. _Do you want to die?'

'Not if it involves ki-'

'_**Do you want to die!'**_ It was more an angry statement than a question.

'No.'

Sylph's pretty elfin features softened as she let go of the young Crusader.

'Then we have an agreement,' she replied, helping Xemira up as he collapsed to the ground. 'You protect yourself from the impending bloodthirsty maniacs, and we help you when we can during the Games.'

An almost imperceptible nod from the warrior was all she needed. But as she turned back to her two allies, she recognized displeasure in their tight lips.

_Congratulations, _they seemed to say. _We just got ourselves another burden. _

She was irritated.

'No, we've just potentially saved another kid's life. Suck it up, will ya?'

* * *

**Rooftop, Wednesday.**

Nic perched on the stone pedestal that resided on the rooftop of the Acer mansion. She had worked up the courage to ask him, and she reckoned she had the courage to face him as well.

_How the heck do I start an apology? "Hey Jak, I'm sorry I ignored you for the past 2 years or so. Sooo. Are you still my best friend?" Aww man. That sounds bad, even to myself._

She practiced.

'Jak, I'm sorry. Forgive me?'

She cried.

_I'm useless. _

She sat there, head lolling gently against the stone lion. Waiting, waiting, waiting. She murmured sleepily into the night air, with her characteristic childlike innocence.

'Sorry, Jak.'

He hadn't come.

* * *

**Rooftop, Thursday.**

Ninja sat, fiddling with her rapidly expanding collection of throwing daggers. She wondered belatedly if they'd be taken away from her. She cursed- _of course they would._

_No one bothers to check here. That's why everyone comes up here. There is no danger._

She stroked the edge of the dagger, not even bothering to be careful of the impeccable sharpness of the weapon. She'd used them for too long to be ruffled by a small nick. Instead, she concentrated on the _structure _of the weapon, focusing on duplicating it, creating its' perfect clone.

It wasn't a hack per se- just a nifty little trick the Dark Lord taught her after she had informed him of her _career _choice. The Dark Lord had realized that with all the hefty living expenses of Kerning, additional cost for new daggers was not something she needed- but still, she decided to venture down the rarely-trodden path of the daggerthrower.

It suited her well.

Her hands were enveloped in an intense haze of black, but she paid no attention- her mind was already submerged in the essence of the new shadow dagger. After a few more seconds of it, the darkness faded and she made a small noise of satisfaction.

It was perfect- the exact replica of the original dagger. Perhaps it had lost some of it's original qualities, but still. Ninja allowed herself a small smile as she allowed the shadow dagger to meld into her skin. She could summon it again if need be.

She turned her mind to other tasks, selecting a well-sharpened Sai from her arsenal of daggers. Time to repeat. She _would _get a dagger in the Acer arena, or by God, someone would _pay. _

* * *

**Unknown maze, Caele.**

**Jakiro**

* * *

It was a maze. An endless maze. Yet another training exercise devised to gauge our potential, to label us with scores. This maze was a spinoff of Ludibrium's maze quest. Tacky chunks of multi-coloured plastic was on my left, right and most of the time, in front of me.

The lighting was set to night- I could barely see where I was going. But basically, you encountered hordes of monsters that you had to kill and survive hunger, exhaustion and your fellow unlucky people.

If you happened to meet them, well. First one to fall unconscious gets chucked unceremoniously into a portal that led out of here. The remaining survivor got the luxury of being healed by a cleric.

Knowing the nature of these games, we'd need it.

I was exhausted. I had met 3 of the permanoobs already and knocked them out into oblivion. I had taken on more Jr. Balrogs than I wanted ever to take on, several Crimson Balrogs and bizarrely, a Slime King.

I slumped against the endless corridor of plastic. Any warrior could pick me off now. Maybe even a mage. Quite frankly, lying down and dying would be better than trying to find a non-existent exit.

But the thing is, we couldn't sleep. In this strange world called 'training exercises', we couldn't sleep. Somehow, the hackers had managed to build little dimensions, quite literally lifted out of time.

They could keep us here forever and it'd still be around 9:47 am back on Maple World.

The downside was we'd still get exhausted, hungry and thirsty. We'd get battered to death by massive balrogs. We get digested by King Slimes. We feel the damned pain.

And take my word for it- it hurts.

There was a soft squishing sound as I dropped to the ground chunks of green slime slapping against the plastic. Awkward chunks of sticking out plastic dug through my clothes into my skin.

I sighed, tossing the hacker-issue Casters away. Maybe it wasn't the right way to treat a weapon, but let's face it. I could barely stand, let alone be dragged down by a kilogram of pure metal covering my hand.

I was just about to let my mind drift away in sleepless oblivion when I heard something. Several somethings.

Footsteps.

Scania knows I didn't need a wiseass warrior bludgeoning me with a chunk of plastic. I scrambled up and tried to make a run for it but I collapsed onto the ground. Jeez, maybe the constant dark-sighting and getting battered by monsters had taken its' toll on me.

I needed to win, though. These exercises could make people want to sponsor me. Potions, food or even a couple of subis could swing the entire Games in my favour. That is, if anyone wanted to sponsor me after I get the most pathetic score ever.

But seriously. If it was a warrior, I was _screwed. _I'd be down with brain damage or worse, especially with the Games looming up in a couple of days.

Death by plastic.

_Great._

I braced my body for the impact, expecting to hear the connection between sword metal and bone. Instead, I feel a gloved hand on my face. This is it. It was a mage. Probably going to set me on fire. I'd go into the arena half scorched to death.

I felt trickles of soothing magic oozing over me, travelling from my face to my arms, my legs, the rest of my body. I didn't feel so sluggish and hey- I didn't even feel tired anymore. Maybe I was Heaven or something.

I blinked lazily, greeted by the sight of piles of plastic, all the colour of the rainbow. And surprised hazel eyes.

Nic.

* * *

**Nic.**

* * *

Maybe it _had _been a pretty good idea to team up with a fellow mage after all. She had told me that her name was Lupercalia. Strange name, but who am I to judge? Being a fire-poison mage, she wasn't that great dealing with overwhelming amounts of aggravated zombies.

And me, being the awesomely-kind priest I am, Shining Ray-ed the nasty undead mobs to oblivion.

C'mon. They were undead brainsucking zombies. I was a priest. Anyone could tell you that we were never going to get along.

'Hey, Nic?'

I finished magic clawing the small army of slimes into oblivion and turned to the direction of her voice.

'Yeah?'

'There's a guy here. He's the chief bandit of Kerning.'

_Jak._

I cringed internally.

'Coming,' I whispered back, teleporting over in a flash of blue energy. My smile dropped when I reached Lupercalia. Jak was, well. Saying he was 'in a bad way' was pretty much an understatement.

_God damn it, heal, heal, __**heal.**_

A thin trickle of healing energy leapt from my hand to him. It flowed for a while but then thinned and became non existent.

'That's pretty much the last of my mana- you got another elixir?'

She rummaged around in the small pack and tossed me a power elixir, grinning as she watched me drink it greedily.

'I wasn't exactly expecting you to heal him, Nic,' she grinned, shaking her head. 'More like kick him while he was down.'

Oh. Right. Getting rid of the competition and all that. _Now _I remember.

'Oops?'

She shrugged, a little smirk still on her face.

'What's done is done. The best thing we could do is to get out of here before he wakes up,' She zipped up her pack and started making for another tunnel. I followed her quickly, grateful that she hadn't asked me why I had healed him.

Because I didn't know the answer myself.

* * *

**Xemira Feonix**

* * *

Warriors were not built for speed.

Why didn't someone tell me that _before _I became a warrior? Speed meant everything here. Never mind the fact that we could hit someone and send them flying with a well placed fist. Never mind that we could, as a matter of fact, hit people to death with sticks.

_Monstrous _strength didn't exactly help when you were trying to run away from a hermit, flash jumping eagerly after you with his scary pointy chunks of metal eager for your blood.

When I entered the games, I thought it'd be different. You know, maybe save the entire world or something without shedding any blood? Maybe that wasn't going to happen now.

The hermit was gaining on me, and my bulky armour that I had _thought _would protect me clanged annoyingly, wearing me down fast. What the hell could I do, just stand there?

I grinned.

I stopped running and quite literally, stood there. The hermit, oblivious in his flash jumping lust, didn't notice and just carried on jumping, his freakish laughter echoing down the hall.

I shook my head.

And they said that _warriors _were stupid.

* * *

**Sylph Arderson**

* * *

Yasa was surprisingly nimble for a warrior. With a graceful leap, she had jumped from Yascal's shoulder onto the top of the wall. Then she pulled Yascal up and he pulled me up. She raised an eyebrow at my confunded look.

'My mother's a hermit. I trained with her to be one as well, but then decided to be a warrior with Yascal.'

I shook my head in disbelief. Maybe I should've trained with a warrior so I could poke someone to death with some makeshift weapon.

She shrugged.

'Hey, you have a great sniping spot, don't 'cha?'

I grinned happily, loading my bow with a soul arrow lying in anticipation for a passing noob to pass over.

I didn't have to wait that long.

'Oh man, this is really, really fun.'

I noticed Yasa and Yascal exchanging a look that pretty much said: _this is one crazy chick._

Ah, who cared? I was on a freaking _high!_

* * *

**Ninja**

* * *

'So, how did you like the training exercise for today?'

I rolled my eyes. I needed that training exercise like I needed some wiseass beginner repeatedly hitting me with a wooden club. Just for your information, I really, really didn't need that.

Maybe our silence was offending Mr. Organiser there, 'cause he started tapping his foot impatiently. From what I knew so far, when he tapped his foot and no one said anything, he'd find some way to kick our asses the next day.

'It was… enjoyable.'

As soon as the words left my mouth, I mentally kicked myself. What happened to 'don't draw attention to yourself'? Dead, gone, and battered with a shoe. He looked at me, eyes shining with what I could only describe as a _maniac happiness. _

'Really?'

I nodded my head slowly, wishing I could back away. I could feel nineteen pairs of incredulous eyes staring at me, mentally communicating to me the same thing: _Who the hell do you think you're kidding?!_

'Uh… sure. It… uh. Prepared us for what's going to happen in the games?'

'Wonderful, wonderful!' He beamed happily at me, making me cringe. 'Well, I'll cancel the rest of the activities I had planned for you all to recuperate! It has been such an exciting day!'

If exciting meant 'batshit insane', sure.

'Oh yes, do try to train a little more. The games are in 2 days! You wouldn't want to find yourself too weak, would you?'

2 days?

My eyes slid to the rest of people seated at the table.

Did that mean in two days, we would all be plotting and trying to kill each other?

The silence spoke it all as we shifted uncomfortably in our seats.

'Sooo. What do you guys want on your gravestones?'

We glared as one towards an obnoxious superbeginner. Maybe I was going crazy, but I think we were all thinking about the same thing: _I'm going to kill him first._

* * *

**The story **_**does **_**drag on a little, doesn't it? I was going to start the games here, but I'll leave it till the next one. **

**Character apps are still up!**

**No archers available. 1 mage position available. 1 thief position available. 1 warrior position available.**

**On the plus side, my exams. Are. Officially. OVER! Which means I can post more and stuff.**

**Also, what's this about the Maple community dying? D=**


	4. The beginning

_1 year ago, Ellinian war zone, medical tent._

* * *

'PRIEST OR ANY HEALER, GET HERE NOW!'

Further echoes of the message was heard everywhere around the medical tent. Sadly, only a few would be attended by the teeming mass of clerics, priests and bishops plus an assortment of hybrid mages.

Too many wounds, too little healers.

Lupercalia ran towards the loudest voice she heard, mentally listing every treatment to any wound known. She was startled at the area of damage- the eyes. Eye damage was one of the most serious injuries in battle. Most of the victims went blind or went into shock.

And she was just a 13 year old fire poison who took healing courses for about two years, not even a cleric or a priest. The only thing she had was basic healing magic. But this was a war. If you had the basics, you were in.

'N-C-W?'

The universal code for 'Name' 'class' and 'wound' was shouted several times before the mage responded.

'Holy Avatar, Ice Lightning, crystal ilbis to both eyes.' He moaned in agony, clutching his eyes. Lupercalia bit her lip. Of all the god damn places in the human body, why the _eyes_?! The mage was definitely going to end up blind, but Lupercalia wasn't about to tell him that.

'You're going to have to move your hands away. I'm going to probe you with Heal,' she explained gently, patiently waiting for him to comply. The young man felt cold gentle fingers on his feverish eyelids and sighed as she began to access the horrific damage.

_What the… the crystal's bonded with the eye?! This isn't supposed to be…_

She cursed. Any complications weren't welcome. Not now in the war, while they were all low on mana and supplies.

'I'm going to have to melt the shards of crystal ilbi, okay?' Lupercalia began fusing healing magic into fire magic. This was about as unprofessional as it got.

'But I have to warn you, crystal ilbi contains an unidentified unstable isotope. It might cause mutation, it may even kill you. And it will most definitely blind you.'

She waited for him to digest the new piece of information. He smiled uneasily in her general direction.

'Lady, I was hit in the eye by two chunks of unstable metal from the Glimmer Man's dimension. I'm lucky to make it out alive.' He smiled sadly, shaking his head. 'If Scania wants me to die, I'll die.'

Lupercalia swallowed uneasily.

'Okay. I'm going to press a fire-heal onto your left and right eye simultaneously. It won't hurt.'

The man winced when she pressed both of her hands onto his eyes, but sighed in relief as the metal/crystal melted. Lupercalia felt her mana flow then ebbed after a few seconds.

'Well, I'm fresh out of mana. You think you could open your eyes now?'

He opened his eyes and Lupercalia took a step back. They were… _pretty _in a weird and twisted kind of way. Pure white, probably because of some complicated way the crystal ilbi fused with his eyes. She took a mental note to write it down in her report.

'Hey, I think I feel something. Almost see, maybe. It's everywhere.'

Lupercalia chuckled uneasily.

'Sorry to tell you this but… I'm pretty sure you're one hundred percent blind.' He cracked a grin at the poor joke and shook his head.

'Since we're in a war and all, there's going to be little or no aftercare. After all this war mess is cleared up, you better make sure you see a bishop, or it'll carry on hurting for the rest of your life.' He rolled his eyes at her, then winced.

'And I'm suspending you from active duty. In fact, I'm suspending you from any duty, short of learning how to deal with your eyes.'

She scribbled down the instructions and suspension on a clipboard and handed it to the mage who carted him off to the recuperation centre, giving him a little wave- a gesture of farewell that he never saw.

And that was the last time Lupercalia saw him.

This was war, anyway. You came in with a thousand friends, you came out with two or three, or maybe you don't even come out at all.

* * *

**Sunday, Acer Mansion.**

**Holy Avatar**

* * *

It was her. I knew it. I recognised the first flow of magic I had ever felt out of the millions after it. The unique twist of fire-poison and healing deeply embedded in each other, maybe more fire and poison magic than there was before. I could almost taste it.

But what was I supposed to say to her?

Hey you, aren't you the person who melted those chunks of metal in my eyes and told me I might die?

Oh, god. I knew I should've built up my social skills somehow. But I've been a loner for a year now. It's hard to break the habit. Especially when the world was dark to you, and you had a disconcerting ability to feel the 'flow' of magic.

I didn't even know what she looked like.

'So, blindy,' A voice suddenly interrupted my train of thought. I recognised the weak magic signature as one of a perma beginners'. I rolled my eyes. 'What're you going to do tomorrow when the games start? Start shooting random pieces of ice everywhere hoping to hit someone?'

I didn't say anything.

'_Blindy _going all high and mighty on us, huh? Let's see how you die tomorrow.' I rolled my eyes again. I didn't need my eyes to see. With those gone, I had developed enhanced senses of hearing and touch.

'Leave him alone, you retards.' It was _her_. My heartbeat quickened. 'Just 'cause the pressure's on you to die first doesn't mean you get to taunt him.'

The perma beginner left quickly and she sat down beside me on the training mat.

'War and impending death brings out the worst in everyone.' I heard her turn towards me and heard her breath stop. She breathed in sharply.

'Oh…It's _you_.'

'Yes,' I agreed. 'It's me.'

* * *

**Jakiro**

* * *

I'll admit it. I was sick, sick to my stomach about what was going to happen tomorrow. Fear twisted like a fire, destroying me from the inside. And most of all, I felt numb.

This was _it. _No going back. Twenty people, perfectly capable of destroying each other was going to be shut in an arena tomorrow. I had a 95 percent chance of dying, with no allies whatsoever.

I was going to die.

But before I did, there was one thing I had to do.

I turned to the magician's corner of the co-training room. Yes, Nic was there, training furiously with a grim expression on her face. I'd hate to get on her bad side. I walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

'Nic, we have to talk. Rooftop at 9?'

Probably without even thinking the question through, she nodded. I smiled sadly to myself as I walked away, looking at our surroundings for probably the very last time.

All but one of us were going to die.

…

I think I was going to throw up.

* * *

**Redcrosse**

* * *

I wasn't exactly sure when our alliance happened. I wasn't even sure if we _were _allies. It was one of those things you didn't say aloud, didn't think to question. All I realise is that all of a sudden, I'm saddled with a 14 year old fire poison mage hybrid who could heal and cast a weak bless.

And all of a sudden, I'm being ordered around by someone 5 years younger than me. From mercenary to a babysitter. Quite a fall from grace.

Maybe I should have approached the priestess of the mage group first, but I'm comfortable with the strange little alliance. Lupercalia chatters on too much while I'm silent, she laughs at me while I try to exert my calmness. She pesters me with questions about Zakum and Horntail, she pesters me about the guild system of the world.

I'm surprised she doesn't know much about the society we all belong to.

One of the priests I was partnered with called me 'a man of few words', but the thing is, I just don't have much to say about anything. If I had more to say, maybe this mistake wouldn't have happened.

Maybe it was wrong for me to partner with someone of another class so easily. Would Dances with the Balrog disapprove? I already knew his strong opinion towards mages.

And Lupercalia had just basically come up to me, quite literally told me that 'we're allies' and sat down beside me, chattering on about something or another.

I really, really needed to learn how to just say 'no' to people.

It was starting tomorrow. The games, I mean. But to me, it was survival of the fittest, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was, in fact, the fittest. Maybe I should break it gently to the younger fire poison mage that I was uninterested in the alliance.

But she came back with restrained tears and looked up at me. And she frowned and whispered to me a little innocent phrase that I've heard once before.

'_Red, I don't want to die.'_

* * *

**Rooftop, 9pm.**

**Jakiro**

* * *

Now that she was here, I didn't know what to say.

'I owe you one,' I said. It sounded bitter and antagonistic, but it was the best thing I could come up with. Catching her confused expression, I explained.

'The maze. You healed me.'

'Oh.'

There was another awkward pause.

'That's… all?'

She sounded hopeful, but what was she expecting? Instant love, gratitude, friendship? She had _discarded _me like some useless item, ignored me, didn't even try to make contact with me.

What was she expecting from _me_?

'Look, Jak, I'm sorry about, well, everything. I know I messed up. I… well. I'm _sorry._'

I fought an internal battle with myself for a brief moment- reconcile or bat away any chance of friendship? Then I remembered the sting of betrayal.

'Sorry just doesn't cut it, Nic,' I looked away. 'And my name is Jakiro.'

I smiled at her for maybe the last time. A stranger's smile, not one of a best friend's.

'Not _Jak._'

I left her standing there, forcefully turning my thoughts to what was going to happen in a handful of hours. I owed her one. After that, she wasn't of my concern.

_Nic, what are you expecting from me?_

* * *

**Sylph Arderson**

**Monday morning, 8am**

* * *

'Look lively, my lovely little lambs!' I slumped on the table, trying to fit more sleep in.

'Now, we wouldn't want you falling asleep on your feet while you're in the arena, would we?'

I was starting to really, really hate Arenare. As in, I was prepared to go on a murdering spree just to take him down. I wasn't exactly dead tired per se, but every second I could stay awake helped, right? Plus I hadn't exactly been able to get to sleep last night.

Besides, I trusted Yasa and Yascal enough to cover my back if I wanted to have a snooze. We had gotten some great bonding time during the week. Admittedly, a week wasn't much to build a lot of trust, but this was a different situation.

Not that I implicitly trusted them with my life, of course.

'Oh, come on little rangeress. You can't expect to beat off the nasty perma beginners with your face in your breakfast.'

I rolled my eyes.

'I can beat them with my face in my breakfast _and_ my feet in my lunch.'

I heard Arenare chuckle.

'Now _that's _the spirit,' I started lifting my head up to glare at him. 'Now that _sleeping beauty _has awoken from her slumber, shall we go and get you guys ready?'

Arenare single-handedly destroyed all calmness and self-confidence with that last sentence. I could hear Renas hyperventilating beside me.

_Well done, bastard. Very well done._

* * *

**Nic**

* * *

Our mentor, Athame began talking rapidly to us in a low voice as we left the Acer Mansion. If he wasn't delivering us to our deathbeds, I'd almost say he was concerned for us.

'Okay, stick close. The arena is big, it's as large as a quarter of Victoria Island and it resembles Ellinia well. You guys have an advantage because of that.'

Athame turned to Lupercalia and motioned for her to come closer.

'Okay Cal, you have a major advantage. Just don't burn down half the arena or you'll lose your cover, kay?'

She nodded, tears brimming around her eyes. She quickly wiped them away while Athame patted her on the shoulder.

'Nic, you need to find an ally quickly.' He saw the look on my face. 'I'm not discriminating, you need to find one.'

I nodded grudgingly. Athame's advice was usually valuable.

'Holy, I don't even think of you as being blind anymore.' He slapped the mage on the back. 'Remember what we discussed about _leeching_.'

Holy nodded.

While Athame discussed tactics with the last mage on our team, I began to seriously think about allying with someone. Maybe I should've said yes to the Ranger- what was her name… Sylph?

If Jak, no, _Jakiro _wasn't so… well. I felt bitter about it. I thought he was going to forgive me before we were sent to our deaths, but _no-o. _

He could suit himself. I'd find a kick-ass ally and survive.

Yeah…

And maybe Grendel would jump over Ossyria and dance the can-can.

* * *

**Jakiro**

* * *

'We don't get a choice in our clothes?'

I picked up the ensemble consisting of a black cotton shirt and black trousers, a black cap, combat boots and a black cape.

I wasn't one for fashion, but seriously?

'I'm going to feel like the damn grim reaper.'

Felicite, the Kerning hacker representative rolled her eyes at me.

'Remember this, kid: Archers are emerald. Mages are Navy. Warriors are red. Perma noobs are yellow.' She grinned. 'And thieves, of course, are black.'

Psh. So even the hackers had some sort of colour stereotype. Shrugging, I turned my back on Felicite and started putting the clothes on. They fit pretty comfortably.

'Any time today, now…' She drawled, tapping a foot impatiently. Without even waiting for an answer, she dragged me out to the main meeting room where the rest of the thieves were assembled.

'Yo K-C,' I grinned at the dagger-throwing girl who was fiddling with the corners of her cape. She looked up and nodded at me.

'Hey.'

I slumped against a wall and sighed- an exhausted, long sound that pretty much summed up the general mood.

Then I realised that our thief mentor hadn't even bothered to show up.

This was _not _going to go well.

* * *

**Redcrosse**

* * *

None of the other warriors were talking to me. They had all allied with the same Rangeress- the one who set my danger alarm off. She might not be all that high leveled, but she had managed to pull not one, not two, but _three _warriors into an alliance.

And that was saying something.

Instead, Lupercalia skipped up to me and smiled half-heartedly.

'Hey, Red?'

'Yes?'

She imitated me and leaned casually on the wall, but a corner of her lips curled downwards.

'I forbid you to die, okay?'

I raised an eyebrow. Who was she joking? If I managed to survive my initiation into the 4th job advancement, I could probably survive this.

'Shouldn't I be saying that to you?'

'Not really.'

I looked down at her, noticing the faraway expression in her eyes. Probably thinking something along the lines of something grand she had managed to get through.

'Okay… if you say so.'

The door opened. None of us looked up. We all knew who it was, anyway.

'None of you look very happy to see me.' the Organiser observed.

I think I heard Lupercalia mutter a 'No shit, Sherlock,' under her breath. If the Organiser heard it, he probably didn't care. We were all just toys to him, like the wooden soldiers that were so popular in Ludibrium.

I heard a hissing noise as the entire room began to _move downwards. _After a few seconds, it stopped and the doors opened, leaving us to gaze at what seemed like an enlarged version of Ellinia.

'Holy shit, it's _huge._'

Wise words from a permabeginner.

'Felicite, Arenare, Raeske, Sebastian, if you please.'

Sebastian, the Perion representative motioned for us to follow him, and we left the room quickly.

'Yasa, to the first circle. Xemira, to the circle next to her. Red, you're on third. Yascal, fourth.'

Like machines, we moved mechanically to our stations. I finally recognised what it was like to have 'blood pounding in my head' and allow me tell you, it didn't feel as wonderful as the Ellinian librarian-writers made it out to be.

Really, it wasn't.

* * *

**Jakiro**

* * *

I cast a discreet look around for anything distinctly valuable. There was a set of crystal ilbis nearby complete with a black Scarab, but not enough to get me to fight the hermit eyeing it hungrily. Instead, I focused on a black backpack- black for thieves, I guessed. It was near the archers.

'Everybody in position?'

A trickle of sweat ran from my hair to my neck as I got ready to charge forward. I noticed a glint of metal hidden under a pile of leaves right beside me- I would get it the first chance I got.

'Okay then.'

Suddenly, the Organiser's voice switched to thunderous and booming mode, echoing down from high above.

'Ladies and gentlemen… We present to you the very first Acer games.' There was a pause. 'Let the games… _**begin!**_'

A large klaxon sounded and I charged straight for what was hopefully a weapon- _yes! _A semi-useful Deadly fin. I charged straight for the black backpack that had not been retrieved by a thief yet. Most had gone for the sharp pointy stuff.

Wait, a perma beginner was in the way. Desperate, I sidestepped him but he whacked me- painfully- on the arm with a wooden club, and I shot him a frustrated look as if to say 'back off'.

If he _did _understand the look, he didn't seem to pay any attention to it, because he went for my head this time with his club. Growling with frustration, I decided to deliver a non-fatal wound to the back of his hand.

'Last chance, noob, get out of my way.' I raised the Deadly fin menacingly, hoping that would scare him off. He sneered at me in response and tried to bash my head in with the blunt end of his club, but I jerked my body awkwardly out of the way of his lumbering form and managed to grab the pack.

'That's mine, idiot!'

The perma beginner pulled at the straps, finally allowing me to believe that he was suicidal. I delivered a swift kick to his stomach, and swiped my deadly fin across his cheek but instead-

A young archer fell, his eyes lolling back into his sockets. Blood trickled from a deep gash at the side of his temple, staining his uniform and the grass a crimson red. Some trickled out from his mouth.

I had used more force than I had needed and… this was the result. The permanoob screamed shrilly as some of the blood dyed his shirt and face, his face a chalky white as he realised that the corpse lying on the ground could have been him.

The cries attracted the attention of the Rangeress of the archer team. She looked at me, than followed my gaze to the ground. She stumbled over blindly.

'Renas…?' she whispered, her eyes widening. Then she focused on me, holding the bloodstained Deadly fin. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. 'You…'

Without even thinking, I hasted myself and ran out of the place as fast as I could, hearing her cries ringing in my ears as I left.

'_You killed him! You murderer… I'll kill you for what you've done. __**I will kill you all.**__'_

I fled, hearing her bloodlustful screams and murderous thoughts echoed by every whisper of the leaves.

I whispered her words to myself.

_Murderer._

Tears welled up but I quickly wiped them away harshly. What was done remained done, could not be undone.

_I am a murderer._

* * *

**I'm in trouble here. I keep forgetting that the warrior spots are in fact full, so musicalbox, I'm sorry that I couldn't enter your warrior person. I am very, very sorry. But 1 magician position happens to be available. **

**Beware: I haven't even chosen someone to be the rampaging insane killer yet. And I know my action scenes, well, suck. :P I'll work on that.**

**Oh yeah, you might notice that **_**all **_**of the warriors seemed to be paired up somehow. They're the strongest. Everybody wants them. It'll change rapidly. I promise that much.**

**There will be no romance. I don't do romance that well. **

**List of characters, in case you lose track. **

**[D] = deceased. **

**[1]Number indicates ****which chapter**** the character ****first majorly appears. **

**[A] means that the character is allied, along with the ally leader person. For example: **

**[AS] means Allied to Sylph. **

**[AL] means allied to Lupercalia. **

**I'll add more as we go along. **

**Permanoobs are not mentioned because quite frankly, they won't survive for that long. Plucky underdog clichés don't work well with me.**

**Mages**

**[2]NicPriest**

**[3][AL]LupercaliaFire poison mage**

**[4]HolyAvatarIce Lightning**

**[0]UndecidedUndecided**

**Thieves**

**[0]KoreaCoreaChief Bandit**

**[2]JakiroSindit**

**[3]UnknownHermit**

**[2]NinjaDagger thrower**

**Archers**

**[2]Renas [D]Crossbowman**

**[2]FerinRanger**

**[2]UnknownHunter**

**[2][AS]SylphRanger**

**Warriors**

**[4][AL]RedcrosseDark knight**

**[2][AS]XemiraCrusader**

**[2][AS]YascalDragon Knight**

**[2][AS]YasaDragon Knight**

**[Disclaimer] I do not own Maplestory. **


	5. Death was knocking on our doors

_4 years ago_

* * *

'Get out of our town, stranger.'

Being thrown out of her hometown accompanied by a mouthful of Korean abuse was not what K-C had expected. Sure, being unceremoniously chucked out by a burly warrior hurt, but being called a stranger…

It hurt more.

But what was she supposed to do? Stand there and cry? The doors to the town were closed to her, just like they were to any normal visiting tourist. Not much to weep about. She could come back and visit her relatives with the other travelers and maybe they'd accept her.

Yeah, and maybe assassins would finally stop obsessing over being ninjas.

Sighing, she picked up her battered red Sonata and headed back the way she came- up Eos tower. She rummaged around for an Eos tower scroll and swore in several languages when she realised the lack of them. It wasn't turning out to be a good day.

'Maybe I shouldn't have left the village…?' Unbidden tears began to form and she wiped them away before they threatened to overflow. 'If I stayed, maybe I wouldn't be like this.'

'Maybe I shouldn't have become a bandit after all. Everyone looks down on bandits. If I went to the Dark Lord maybe he would-'

She then realised that she was practically drowning in self-pity. She giggled hysterically to herself for a moment- purely out of tension and… sadness. 'Sides, the Dark Lord doing something for _her_? Not involving _mesos_?

The thought was insane.

'Yo, you got an Eos scroll?'

The brusque tone came from somewhere behind her. Not even bothering to look, K-C continued scrambling ungracefully up the tacky plastic ladder.

'If I did, would I be clambering up like an idiot?'

There was a pause.

'All right, no need to get snappy with me.'

The sound of a staff clattered against the plastic blocks that happened to be Eos tower, bringing a sneer to K-C's face.

_Magicians._

She didn't have the time or energy to deal with one right now. Unfortunately for her, the mage continued yelling on after her.

'Umm, hi. My name's Richard. Richard Walker. Do you think you could haste me?'

K-C rolled her eyes as the mage teleported through a mini army of trixters and black rats. Eos tower got more infested as the days went on, but no one really cared. Unless they were climbing up Eos like she was.

'Whaddya think I am? A haste machine?' She glowered at the mage. Her expression didn't soften as she realised that he was a kid. After all, she reasoned with herself, _she _was a kid as well.

The mage looked up at her with pleading eyes.

'Please, it'd really help me get up faster and uh… jump over rats and stuff.' The mage's puppy dog eyes had no effect whatsoever on K-C, who leapt nimbly to the next plastic ladder. She grimaced as the mage continued to keep up with her with his teleport.

'Please please please plea-'

K-C snapped. The pressure of being chucked out of her home town, the feeling of unworthiness, the sheer _annoyingness _of the noob mage… It piled up and exploded right in her face.

'Get lost, noob!' She screamed and swiped at the younger mage with her Reef Claw, sharp metal connecting with the back of his hand. The mage lost his balance and fell. Fast. He was swiped by numerous screw-like objects which left him battered and cut up, drops of blood trickling onto the plastic. Without even looking down, the bandit continued making her way up the tower.

Tears came. Spilled over his eyelids. But there was a rage that soothed all the pain, an anger that over time transformed him into an unrecognizable, unstable excuse for a human being.

Richard Walker pictured the bandit in his mind- the murderous expression that may or may not have been slightly exaggerated, the crimson eyes that may or may not had been imagined- who had red eyes anyway? - and the long, black hair.

He pictured the bandit again as a mutilated corpse, hanging dead from a tree in Ellinia, gashes trailing from her head to her feet and slowly being taken apart by the crows that occasionally flew over from Mushroom Town. What was left of her carcass swung back and fro gently with the breeze.

Richard smiled to himself.

The image was appealing.

_Very _appealing.

* * *

**10 minutes into the Games.  
Monday morning.**

**Xemira Feonix.**

* * *

Scared.

Terrified.

_Petrified, _even.

I tore through the woods, a Doombringer in the grasp of my right hand. A blue backpack was clutched in my left. I could hear cawing of crows and the annoying rustle of leaves and the twigs I snapped as I ran for my life, away from the killings and the battles and the blood.

I, Xemira Feonix, was scared.

I never exactly realised how sheltered I was until now. Killing another human had never occurred to me, but it was me or them. And everyone had a primal instinct to survive.

I prayed that Scania wouldn't damn my soul.

Oh, I would injure, maim, kill. When it finally came down to it, everyone would. But when I thought about it several days before, I had visions of people calling it off, saying it was too barbaric.

But they were actually going through with it.

And I had heard the screams of some poor soul already, not like the archer who had died swiftly and soundlessly in the first few minutes.

There was someone ready to kill in this game. Someone not like me who was afraid to kill. Someone who was pretty comfortable with the idea of destroying another for survival.

There was a killer loose in this arena.

And I was locked in here with him. My eyes frantically ran over anything that could come in handy. Any hidden glint of metal? No, just green, green, green and a red ball, more green and guess what, more gre-

Wait. What?

A red ball?

I smiled, despite my fears. It resembled those teleporters in Henesys that transferred you to the other side of the towns. I remembered my younger self bouncing to and fro from each of the town just for kicks.

Gingerly, I made my way over to it. Clutching my prizes tightly, I stretched out a tentative finger and let the nauseous sensation take over.

* * *

**Nic [[13 minutes into the game]]  
Priest  
Level: 103**

* * *

Magicians were never trained to climb trees. But we managed anyway, what with Ellinia actually being a giant tree and all. So that was what I did. I scrambled up a one with branches I thought would support my weight and settled into the familiar lushness of the fauna.

Maybe _too _familiar.

My eyes began to water and there was a tingly feeling in my nose. The urge to splutter and cough began to take over.

I cursed.

_Damn you, hay fever._

This was when things started to get seriously, _seriously _bad.

In a coughing fit that could've woken up half of Ellinia, I fell off the branch. I fell off the _freaking _branch.

Sweet mother of Grendel, why now?!

But I had no time to ponder on my misfortune. That time slot was entirely devoted to spluttering and wiping tears away from my eyes.

Sitting there wandless while having attracted the attention of every single person in the arena was the _worst _thing I could've done.

But when I saw a trigger-happy hermit about 5 meters away from me, I had to admit I was pretty surprised.

He grinned at me the way a predator smiles when he knows he's got a victim by their neck.

'Hello, little mage.'

He leapt at me with a pointy-looking claw, made even more dangerous by the projectiles inside that cruelly glinted in the sunlight.

He was going to attack me.

He was going to _kill _me.

My eyes widened as I clutched at the ground unconsciously in my fear. He smirked, slowly taking out a throwing star. I mentally assessed it.

Crystal ilbi throwing star, edges sharp, not blunt. Diamond coated, will penetrate through anything. 100 percent fatality rate if used properly. I looked at the hermit. No doubt he would use it properly.

I clenched my teeth.

No doubt that I was going to die, then.

He smiled again, eyes creasing as he tossed the star up and down in his clawed hand. Before I could even blink, he attacked.

He clenched his fist tightly, grasping his stars and launched them. The projectiles embedded itself into the branch above me, splinters showering me like a rain of death. I crossed my arms over my face, letting my arms and head take the brunt of the damage.

A branch fell to the ground, split neatly into half. I slowly looked up into his eyes, brown eyes the colour of sludge and mud. A feral grin lit up his face.

'Ready to play, little mage?'

My eyes widened.

_MOVE!_

* * *

**Jakiro  
13 minutes into the game**

**Bandit-sin  
Level: 92**

* * *

Maybe it wasn't strictly allowed, but Felicite had shown us the blueprints for the thing. I couldn't remember much of it- she had only given us an unofficial discreet glance. But help was help, and it could come in handy some time.

From what I _could _remember, this was the forest area if the trees were any indication. I probably wasn't even in the main forest yet, just somewhere along the trail.

I wasn't claustrophobic per se, but being close to so much _green _after living in a box of metal and concrete for most of my life…

It felt weird.

And weird did _not_ feel good.

I slung the black pack over my shoulder, making mental note to go over the stuff later. First, I had to find a place to hide out. And with about half of Ellinia in here, I was pretty much spoilt for choice.

But that didn't mean I shouldn't be cautious.

'_Killer, murderer, I'll __**kill **__you…'_

I pushed the thoughts away from my mind. I'd deal with the angsty emotions later. As for now…

'You can run, but you can't hide, mage,' My ears pricked up. It was the strange hermit that scared the _shit _out of me. What was his name… Fion Zarkandas? Fading swiftly into Dark Sight, I ran lightly over in his general direction.

'Aww, man. Just leave me the hell alone, why can't you?'

Nic.

I pushed my body into the small clearing to witness Zarkandas leaping around with flash jump while chucking pointy objects at Nic. A stray star shot near me and I caught it between my fingers, wincing when it created a nick in my index finger. The action alone was enough to make me lose the concentration needed to maintain Dark Sight, making me poof back into visibility.

'Hello, _Fion,_' I greeted him politely, twirling the star neatly in my hand. He stared at it, transfixed at the spinning metal. 'Been up to much?'

He tore his eyes away from the throwing star and smirked. 'I was just getting along quite well with this mage over here,' he nodded towards Nic, smiling. 'I'm not sharing though Jakiro,' he paused, making a throwing star appear quickly In his hand. 'So I'm afraid you'll have to find your own little mage.'

'Is that so, Fion?' I raised an eyebrow as I pocked the throwing star and began twirling a lightweight dagger that I had managed to snag on my way. 'You know what they say- stars are exhaustible but daggers never tarnish.'

Zarkandas regarded me silently for a moment, head cocked to one side.

'Aah, fine,' he pocketed his throwing star and lifted his hand as a farewell. 'But mark my words, bandit sin. I'll be back for you… For you and the mage.'

Then he flash jumped off, leaving Nic and I in the Awkward Zone.

Nic and I looked at each other, shrugging simultaneously at his odd behaviour. I quickly stopped- it reminded me too much about the old days. But maybe, maybe we could… I didn't know.

'Soooo…' I fumbled awkwardly around with my words. 'Uh. It might not be that wise for you to go around with a wand and all-'

She interrupted me quickly with a finger to my lips. 'Alliance?' She stuck out a hand, smiling. Without even thinking, I took it and pulled her into a hug, mussing up her hair in the process. I tried to put most of what I was feeling into the embrace, fearing I wouldn't get it right with words.

'Sorry, Jak,' she whispered as I released her from the bear hug. I smiled at her.

'There's nothing to be sorry about, Nic,' I ran my hands through my hair, staring away through the trees. 'We need to get back on the move. Who knows who else might be out here…'

Knowing the hackers, they probably thought up several nasty surprises for us just for kicks. But hey, this was too soon to be launching any… right?

* * *

**Lupercalia  
Level: unknown  
Fire poison mage.  
20 minutes into the game.**

'Jeez, this is taking freakin' _ages_. Are you _sure _we should've followed this path?'

Okay, so maybe I sounded like a whiny little bitch. But the sun was scorching, the road was dusty, plus Red wasn't the most sociable of guys. Sure, he was easily likable with his adorable stoic nature and all, but the antisocial attitude didn't help my boredom. I fiddled with my dark ritual irritably, waiting for some form of smart-ass reply.

'The others mostly took the forest path,' Ah, there came to smart-ass reply. 'I assumed it would be more convenient for us to take another path.'

I shrugged. After all, he was the smart one. An unbidden thought crept into my mind- another one of Grendel's useless quotes.

'_A fool's mistake is usually small, but a wise man's error may be grave.'_

Well, whatever. The worst we could do was to die.

'Where do you think this is leading to?'

He shrugged, shifting the weight of his _hugeass _spear to his other shoulder. How he managed to snag something that big, I do not know.

'I have no idea. There weren't exactly any maps of the arena lying around- I apologise.' He muttered dryly, grimacing as the sweat poured down his face. I rolled my eyes. If the spear was too much for him, why the hell did he take it?

'D'you think there's a stream or a river around? 'Cause we are going to be seriously thirsty soon,' I surveyed my surroundings, hoping that a river would just pop out of the parched ground.

'Talking wastes time and energy. Let's just walk.'

And _that _was the end of our oh-so-conversational conversation. We trudged in silence for a couple of minutes, but…

'Lu, is it just me or is there a very large mob of something chasing us?'

I raised my head and looked back. And stared for about the whole of 10 seconds. About 30 lumps of birds mounted about fuzzy mountains were headed our way. And they all looked _mad._

'What're you waiting for?!' I screamed, lunging desperately forwards, my red pack clattering painfully against my leg.

'RUN!'

* * *

**Redcrosse  
Dark Knight  
Level 130  
24 minutes into the game**

* * *

Some people might say that warriors were not exactly God's gift to running. Our cumbersome armour that offered us protection usually hindered any attempts to flee. But here, in the Acer games, dressed in a long white shirt and sandblasted jeans, I was pretty sure I'd survive the Yeti and Pepe rampage by outrunning them.

Yeah, and the fact that we were a quarter of the way up a mountain helped as well. Though I had to admit, having several tonnes of water pounding down a couple of metres away was slightly disheartening.

'RED, MOVE UP HERE!' Lupercalia, or Lu, as I liked to call her, shouted down from halfway up the mountain.

Huh. Who knew magicians were so adept at free scaling. Thank god my newly acquired Pinaka had a leather strap attached to it. I hung it off my neck and grimaced. The effect reminded me of a certain hermit strangling me in the horntail caves. I was pretty sure that my windpipe was going to break.

'Lu, this isn't going to happen.' Tough, the waterfall swept my words away, continuously spraying me with it's clear mountain water. I licked my lips. It tasted surprisingly clear.

Kudos to the hackers for constructing a waterfall.

'WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU.'

The girl had a set of lungs that even the mightiest of boss monsters would admire. I shook my head to get the water out of my eyes.

I yelled about the spear and I could _feel _her rolling her eyes. There was a rock jutting out into my back and I realised the full effect of hanging around a rocky mountain, complete with waterfall-

It was uncomfortable.

'What're you hanging around for?' Lu tutted, as I almost fell off the mountain in surprise. 'Hang the huge metal stick on that rock peeking out, and jump up.'

I felt offended for the Pinaka- huge metal stick indeed! But hey- mages had all the brains around here. And thus began my ungraceful ascent up the mountain.

'Um, Red. If I were you, I'd hurry it up a bit.' Lupercalia looked down. 'Turns out the Pepes can climb pretty fast as well.'

I slowly cast my eyes down, then felt my body freeze. Less than 20 metres below, a small army of blue was swarming over the rocks. Another 30 metres below, large furry lumps were slowly ascending.

'Crap.'

Lupercalia tutted again.

'Climb. There's a hidden cave in the middle of the waterfall.' She leapt agilely from rock to rock, not at all scared of tumbling off. In a blue flash of teleport, she vanished.

'Hurry up- there's only about 10 metres to go.'

I groaned inwardly but upped the speed. 10 metres was a long way to climb, especially with, as Lu had so aptly dubbed it, a huge metal stick.

Five minutes of strenuous climbing later, I collapsed into a shuddering, damp heap in the middle of the cave. Lupercalia, however, chose to stand beside me laughing her head off.

'I thought warriors were supposed to be fit,' she smirked. 'Never knew how wrong I could be.'

I grunted in dissent, too exhausted to reply. I stumbled to the edge of the cave and heaved my breakfast down the waterfall. My companion wrinkled her nose.

'Charming.' She snorted, shaking her head. 'There are potions in your pack and we have water with traces of puke.' I choked at that and drowned my shame in a power elixir.

'We might as well set up camp for now. The Pepes got washed down the waterfall and the Yetis are probably terrorising someone else by now.' I imagined another bunch of people running away from the terrifying fuzzy lumps and chuckled.

Lupercalia shook her head.

'Not a chance, bub. The Pepes might be indigo splodges on the ground, but if you stretch those ears of yours, you _might _hear the rumbling of a million unhappy yetis,' she stuck her head out of the cave for a moment and just as quickly pulled back in.

'We have to kill them,' she panted heavily as she looked around the cave with wild eyes. 'There's a freakin' army of them!'

I shrugged confidently, not even considering the possibility of being overrun by the humongous monsters. There were certain advantages to being a close-ranged attacker.

Another 5 minutes later, there was a large supply of yeti horns stacked in one side of the cave, and a large pile of yeti corpses quickly decomposing in another side. Plus we had looted more potions than anyone could drink in a lifetime.

I smirked at Lupercalia.

'You were saying…?'

* * *

**Nic  
Priest  
Level 103  
45 minutes into the game**

* * *

'Nic.' A pause. 'Hey, Nic?'

I stumbled out of my stupor quickly with a little shake from Jakiro. I hadn't even noticed that I was all but completely ignoring my partner.

'Sorry- missed what you said,' I apologised, shaking my head. He smiled wryly at me before continuing.

'I was saying that we're going nowhere,' Jak slid his eyes behind us. 'I think pretty much everyone headed in this direction, so it's unsafe. I don't know about you, but one psycho a day is pretty much my limit.'

I rolled my eyes- something that was beginning to become a habit nowadays.

'So you're saying we hike back to the beginning? Like 5 kilometres?' Nic raised an eyebrow. 'Mages can usually survive running around a bit, but this is really pushing it.'

'Sorry.'

Nic sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration. Then she stopped, her eyes widening.

'Jak…?'

By the tone of her voice, I knew something was wrong. She swallowed and held out her hand.

A crimson sticky liquid slowly dripped from her fingertips.

'If we're going to run to the other end of the arena, we'd better do it quickly,' she cursed as she tried to fix the now visible deep gash on her head. Little trickles of green sparks flowed from her hands. It wasn't enough.

'Jak, head wounds always bleed the most. I need a wand,' Nic started walking briskly, aided by my haste. Blood started to flow freely from her head. She scowled as it stained the blue cloth of her outfit.

'I really, _really _need a wand.'

That's when we heard the slow thunder of a thousand heavy beings punishing the ground at once. I turned my head slowly, confirming my worst fears.

'Taurospear stampede!'

* * *

**???  
60 minutes into the game**

* * *

I twisted in agony as I tried to patch up my unhealing wounds. I did _not _intend to die of blood loss. That'd be an embarrassing way to go. My head hurt. My legs hurt. My body felt warm- too warm.

That bloody ranger…

But enough about that. I needed a cleric, or the next best thing. I was planning to do a lot, lot more than to slowly bleed to death. I grinned.

Time to hunt.

* * *

**I swear the more I write battle scenes, the more I suck at them. Help, please? Sadly, all spots are filled. Sooo… Yeah.**

**http ://i127 .photobucket. com/ albums/p139/Annikabelle/ ****acermapcopy. png**

**A map of the Acer arena. It'll come in handy… I guess. Remove spaces. **

**Let's just make a quick summary: **

**Nic & Jak: Heading out of the Forest Area, towards god-knows-where. Nic is bleeding from a head wound. They're being chased by Taurospears.**

**Redcrosse & Lupercalia: Are camping in small cave behind the waterfall for now. They're in the Mountain Area and have just slaughtered a small army of Yetis. **

**Fion Zarkandas: Was last seen in the Forest Area by Jakiro and Nic, but no idea of his current location.**

**Xemira Feonix: Just got teleported to another location.**

**I'd appreciate it if the people whose characters I've written about give me some feedback. 'Cause otherwise I don't know whether I'm majorly straying away from the way you want your character to be portrayed. D: There is no romantic-ness in this story. I suck at romance. And battle scenes. Apologies if this is dragging out WAY too long- I'll fix it next chapter.**

**For now, I'm just happy I have a chapter at all. x.x **

* * *


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